Kathy Schultz
Professor
Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice

Miramontes Baca Education Building, Room 210
University of Colorado Boulder
249 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309​

 

Kathy Schultz is Professor of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education and with the Renée Crown Wellness Institute. She was Dean of the School of Eduation from 2017-2023 following her appointment as Dean of the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland, California from 2010-2016. She also served as professor and director of the teacher education program at the University of Pennsylvania from 1997-2010 where she founded and directed the Center for Collaborative Research and Practice in Teacher Education. During that time, she was the faculty director of the Philadelphia Writing Project and served on the Empowerment Board (School Board) of the Chester Upland School District. 

Her scholarly work has focused on the research, development, and dissemination of practices that support new and veteran teachers working with marginalized populations in high poverty areas. Her two recent books, Listening: A framework for teaching across differences and Rethinking classroom participation: Listening to silent voices address these issues. In 2019, she published her most recent book, Distrust and educational change: Overcoming barriers to just and lasting reform, about the role of distrust in educational reform that draws on her work in Oakland and as a school board member and leader of professional development in international settings. 

As dean, one of her areas of focus was  to work with the faculty to develop place-based partnerships including student teaching, professional development, research, policy, and community-engaged projects in three areas: rural Northeast Colorado, Lafayette (in Boulder County), and the Montbello area of Denver. She has been working closely with colleagues in Northeast Colorado to develop recruitment and retention strategies for rural teachers as a way to address the teacher shortage in that area and across rural communities in Colorado, and supported several professional development initiatives including the launch of online degree programs, tsuch as the Master’s in Teacher Leadership program. 

Schultz is committed to advancing the School of Education's public scholarship and educational equity and justice mission. As a founder and the current co-chair of the Education Deans for Justice and Equity, she leads efforts to recruit and support students, faculty, and staff of color in the School of Education and aligning the school's equity and justice work with the national imperatives to speak and act collectively and in solidarity with communities for more just policies, reforms, and public discourse around education.

Education 

  • PhD Reading, Writing and Literacy, and MSEd Reading, Writing and Literacy, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 1991
  • MEd Elementary Education, Lesley College Shady Hill School, 1978
  • BS Environmental Education, cum laude, Yale University, 1977 

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